Washington (CNN)It was a day that was all about Hillary Clinton -- but she wasn't even the star of her own show.

Instead, FBI Director James Comey and President Barack Obama took leading roles Tuesday that could prove crucial to her fate.

The day started with relief -- as Clinton learned the FBI will not recommend charges over her private email servers -- and ended with euphoria -- as Obama stood on a stage and chanted "Hillary, Hillary." But victories for the Clinton campaign are rarely clear cut, and there was plenty of fresh fodder for her critics to feast on even as a dark legal cloud was lifted from over her.

It played out on a day of surreal events that set a new high water mark for the turbulence that so often rips through Clinton's political career.

While she escaped an indictment, Clinton endured a stunning dressing down from Comey. The inscrutable former prosecutor accused the candidate who wants to be the ultimate guardian of the nation's secrets of being "extremely careless" in handling classified data.

Later on, Obama's exuberant appearance at at rally in swing state North Carolina -- his first of the campaign for Clinton -- may have done as much to remind Democrats why they like him so much as make the case, in the President's words, that it was time to "pass the baton."

Plot twists

All in all, Tuesday served as a metaphor for a campaign season that has frequently defied credulity and produced plot twists that have the participants lurching between highs and lows with no one certain of what will happen next.

It all started at just after 9:30 a.m. ET, when it emerged that Comey would hold a sudden and mysterious appearance before the cameras. The straight-shooting Comey showed up to utter 12 words that Clinton's campaign had longed to hear following months of speculation that she could face legal charges over her private email arrangement as secretary of state.

"Our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case," Comey said.

Photos:Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight

Photos:Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight

Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic Party's nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28. The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state was the first woman to lead the presidential ticket of a major political party.

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Photos:Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight

Before marrying Bill Clinton, she was Hillary Rodham. Here she attends Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Her commencement speech at Wellesley's graduation ceremony in 1969 attracted national attention. After graduating, she attended Yale Law School.

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Rodham was a lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee, whose work led to impeachment charges against President Richard Nixon in 1974.

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In 1975, Rodham married Bill Clinton, whom she met at Yale Law School. He became the governor of Arkansas in 1978. In 1980, the couple had a daughter, Chelsea.

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Arkansas' first lady, now using the name Hillary Rodham Clinton, wears her inaugural ball gown in 1985.

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The Clintons celebrate Bill's inauguration in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1991. He was governor from 1983 to 1992, when he was elected President.

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Bill Clinton comforts his wife on the set of "60 Minutes" after a stage light broke loose from the ceiling and knocked her down in January 1992.

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In June 1992, Clinton uses a sewing machine designed to eliminate back and wrist strain. She had just given a speech at a convention of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union.

Clinton accompanies her husband as he takes the oath of office in January 1993.

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The Clintons share a laugh on Capitol Hill in 1993.

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Clinton unveils the renovated Blue Room of the White House in 1995.

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Clinton waves to the media in January 1996 as she arrives for an appearance before a grand jury in Washington. The first lady was subpoenaed to testify as a witness in the investigation of the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas. The Clintons' business investment was investigated, but ultimately they were cleared of any wrongdoing.

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The Clintons hug as Bill is sworn in for a second term as President.

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The first lady holds up a Grammy Award, which she won for her audiobook "It Takes a Village" in 1997.

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The Clintons dance on a beach in the U.S. Virgin Islands in January 1998. Later that month, Bill Clinton was accused of having a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

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Clinton looks on as her husband discusses the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 26, 1998. Clinton declared, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." In August of that year, Clinton testified before a grand jury and admitted to having "inappropriate intimate contact" with Lewinsky, but he said it did not constitute sexual relations because they had not had intercourse. He was impeached in December on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

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The first family walks with their dog, Buddy, as they leave the White House for a vacation in August 1998.

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President Clinton makes a statement at the White House in December 1998, thanking members of Congress who voted against his impeachment. The Senate trial ended with an acquittal in February 1999.

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Clinton announces in February 2000 that she will seek the U.S. Senate seat in New York. She was elected later that year.

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Clinton makes her first appearance on the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

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Sen. Clinton comforts Maren Sarkarat, a woman who lost her husband in the September 11 terrorist attacks, during a ground-zero memorial in October 2001.

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Clinton holds up her book "Living History" before a signing in Auburn Hills, Michigan, in 2003.

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Clinton and another presidential hopeful, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, applaud at the start of a Democratic debate in 2007.

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Obama and Clinton talk on the plane on their way to a rally in Unity, New Hampshire, in June 2008. She had recently ended her presidential campaign and endorsed Obama.

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Obama is flanked by Clinton and Vice President-elect Joe Biden at a news conference in Chicago in December 2008. He had designated Clinton to be his secretary of state.

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Clinton, as secretary of state, greets Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a meeting just outside Moscow in March 2010.

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The Clintons pose on the day of Chelsea's wedding to Marc Mezvinsky in July 2010.

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In this photo provided by the White House, Obama, Clinton, Biden and other members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

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Clinton checks her Blackberry inside a military plane after leaving Malta in October 2011. In 2015, The New York Times reported that Clinton exclusively used a personal email account during her time as secretary of state. The account, fed through its own server, raises security and preservation concerns. Clinton later said she used a private domain out of "convenience," but admits in retrospect "it would have been better" to use multiple emails.

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Clinton arrives for a group photo before a forum with the Gulf Cooperation Council in March 2012. The forum was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Obama and Clinton bow during the transfer-of-remains ceremony marking the return of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012.

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Clinton ducks after a woman threw a shoe at her while she was delivering remarks at a recycling trade conference in Las Vegas in 2014.

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Clinton, now running for President again, performs with Jimmy Fallon during a "Tonight Show" skit in September 2015.

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Clinton testifies about the Benghazi attack during a House committee meeting in October 2015. "I would imagine I have thought more about what happened than all of you put together," she said during the 11-hour hearing. "I have lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done." Months earlier, Clinton had acknowledged a "systemic breakdown" as cited by an Accountability Review Board, and she said that her department was taking additional steps to increase security at U.S. diplomatic facilities.

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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders shares a lighthearted moment with Clinton during a Democratic presidential debate in October 2015. It came after Sanders gave his take on the Clinton email scandal. "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails. Let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."

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Clinton is reflected in a teleprompter during a campaign rally in Alexandria, Virginia, in October 2015.

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Clinton walks on her stage with her family after winning the New York primary in April.

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After Clinton became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee, this photo was posted to her official Twitter account. "To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want -- even president," Clinton said. "Tonight is for you."

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Obama hugs Clinton after he gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The president said Clinton was ready to be commander in chief. "For four years, I had a front-row seat to her intelligence, her judgment and her discipline," he said, referring to her stint as his secretary of state.

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Clinton arrives at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony in New York on September 11. Clinton, who was diagnosed with pneumonia two days before, left early after feeling ill. A video appeared to show her stumble as Secret Service agents helped her into a van.

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Clinton addresses a campaign rally in Cleveland on November 6, two days before Election Day. She went on to lose Ohio -- and the election -- to her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.

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After conceding the presidency to Trump in a phone call earlier, Clinton addresses supporters and campaign workers in New York on Wednesday, November 9. Her defeat marked a stunning end to a campaign that appeared poised to make her the first woman elected US president.

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But Comey hardly let Clinton off the hook -- he stoked tension at the beginning of his remarks by revealing no one outside his inner FBI circle knew what he was going to say.

"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," Comey said.

It was a highly unusual intervention by the FBI chief since the agency typically does not act as a prosecutor in such cases -- or even publicly announce its recommendations to the Justice Department.

But Comey appeared to be keen both to protect the integrity of the FBI probe into the email server that has clouded Clinton's campaign -- and his own legacy -- during a highly toxic political moment that had no parallel in recent memory.

And his decision ensured that while the saga of the Clinton emails likely will not reach its conclusion in a courtroom, it will be played out in the court of public opinion for the rest of the presidential election campaign.

"The FBI's findings are a glaring indictment of Hillary Clinton's complete lack of judgment, honesty, and preparedness to be our next commander-in-chief," said RNC chief Reince Priebus, exploiting the opening Comey provided. "They confirm what we've long known: Hillary Clinton has spent the last 16 months looking into cameras deliberately lying to the American people."

Donald Trump was both confounded and validated by the FBI findings.

On the one hand, his statements that Clinton should be in jail began to look threadbare. On the other, Comey offered new material for his case against "Crooked Hillary" and a "rigged" political system.

To connoisseurs of the controversies, scandals and pseudo-scandals that have dogged Hillary and Bill Clinton throughout their public life, Tuesday's final act in the email saga seemed strangely familiar.

While escaping official censure, the couple emerged from yet another scrape, apparently on a matter of legal interpretation, and limped away with another pile of political baggage that allows enemies like Trump brand them dishonest.

But as in previous acts of Clintonian escapology, their foes were left spluttering -- especially since Tuesday's decision came less than a week after the House Select Committee on Benghazi also failed to nail Clinton.

"Under similar circumstances, anyone else would have to bear the consequences for their actions, but in this case, justice and accountability seem to have evaded the American people once again," said California Rep. Darrel Issa in comments widely echoed among conservatives across social media.

Resilience

But if there is one quality Clinton has never lacked in her long years of public life, it is resilience.

Within two hours of Comey's rebuke, she was climbing the stairs to Air Force One headed to swing North Carolina as Obama made his long awaited campaign trial debut for his former cabinet colleague.

As the iconic jet nosed soared south, the two former political rivals chatted and Clinton proudly showed off photos of her new grandson Aidan. It is not known if they discussed how awkward things would have been had Comey come to a different conclusion.

But as they stepped off the plane together, the developments in Washington played out on a split screen on cable news, as current State Department spokesman John Kirby got a grilling over Comey's remarks.

Soon, Clinton was behind a podium with a presidential seal -- at last -- but only as the warm-up act for the man who her campaign hopes can play a vital role in driving his unique coalition of voters to the polls in November.

Given all that has passed between Clinton and Obama over the years, it was a fascinating moment in itself. But it was all the more remarkable because for Clinton and Obama, it was as though the tumultuous events of Tuesday morning never happened.

Neither of them mentioned the email server, or the FBI probe, even though it was the driving theme of this strangest of political days.

Once Obama took the mic, it was like 2008 all over again, as he ran through his repertoire of campaign catchphrases including "I love you back," "Don't boo -- vote" and a confession to the crowd that he was all "fired up."

Although Obama's embrace of Clinton was fulsome, billing her not only as the heir to his legacy but the only person fit to be president, his relish at being back on the stump did rather overshadow Clinton's own remarks.

"I know I've gone on too long -- that's what happens (when) you haven't campaigned in a while. You start just enjoying it too much," Obama said at one point.

It was a performance that may well help Clinton, as Obama repaid a debt by assuming the "explainer-in-chief" role that former President Bill Clinton played for him in 2012 during the Democratic National Convention.

Obama's theatrics were a reminder that his retail political skills and ability to inspire the Democratic base remain superior to those of Clinton. Still, the President closed with an endorsement that summed up the case for Clinton: That all the things she has endured that have not killed her and have often made her stronger.

"Sometimes we take somebody who's been in the trenches and fought the good fight, and been steady for granted," Obama said. "So as a consequence, you know, that means that sometimes Hillary doesn't get the credit she deserves. But the fact is, Hillary is steady and Hillary is true."